Shining Sword

Name:	Shining Sword
Developer:	American Laser Games
Systems:	PS1
Due date:	Q4 1996, then early 1997

Shining Sword is a cancelled PlayStation game from American Laser Games.
It was to be an 3D action adventure RPG beat 'em up game.

Plot

The goal of Shining Sword is to obtain the eponymous shining sword.
The game is set in Haradium. An evil dictator, Nazduk, has taken over.
Nazduk has cast a spell, turning the human citizens into animals.

By obtaining the 'shining sword', you can return the animals back to human form.
The wielder also gets super powers too.

Gameplay

You can play as four characters: a minotaur, a Lich, a priestess, or a rat-man.
The Lich is actually Nazduk in digsuise.

There would have been multiplayer with either two controllers or two consoles via link cable.

Development

The game world is in 3D with no pre-rendered rooms.
The animation was done via motion capture.
The models have been made with edited Sony software to create 600+ polygon models.

Cancellation

The failure of the past lightgun games caught up with American Laser Games.
Layoffs were made to offset the losses. Talent programmers and staff were lost.

The company hired a talented contractor to save Shining Sword.
The contractor peered at the code, declared it awful, and suggested the game be started over.
Shining Sword was cancelled and the American Laser Games filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.